The ability to mobilise

Dalej!, [September 1998]

Now that the Solidarnosc trade union movement is a pillar of the
Polish right-wing, the ex-Communist OPZZ trade unions are increasingly
able to mobilise the working population in the struggle for social
justice.

The following analysis was recently published in Dalej!,
the newspaper of the far-left NLR current.

The Warsaw demonstration organised by the National Trade Union
Alliance (OPZZ) on 3rd April marked the opening of a general
dispute with the Government. It showed that dormant within this
trade union grouping is a substantial potential to mobilise large
numbers in defence of the interests of the workers.

The day after the demonstration, Trybuna newspaper wrote
that the OPZZ: “was often perceived as a bureaucratic, inanimate
[post-Communist] union which would find no place in the new
order.” The union rank-and-file are guiltless. But the OPZZ
leadership deserved this criticism. It is pleasing that such criticism
can be read today not only in periodicals such as Dalej! but even in
Trybuna.

We rub our eyes in amazement however, when we read in the same
newspaper that: “In recent years the OPZZ was so passive that
there were some in the Social Democrats (SdRP—ex-Communist) who
argued that it was time to withdraw from the alliance with the
OPZZ and start working entirely on their own account.”

We are asked to believe that in the leadership and apparatus of
the SdRP there were people who were annoyed because the OPZZ
stood by quietly without protesting. Meanwhile, the Social
Democrats took the side of the capitalists on every issue that
was important. Who writes this rubbish, and why?

We read further in Trybuna, in connection with the OPZZ
demonstration:

The workers showed that—contrary to the opinions of the
neo-liberals—they are an important partner for discussions and
not merely an obstruction on the road to reform. The words of the
Internationale could be heard here and there in the OPZZ ranks.

They are today once more a reality. ‘The wretched of the
earth,’—people made wretched by the Solidarity and Freedom
Union Government, who today care only for the new vanguard of change,
the so-called middle class, were marching in the streets.

But who, if not the so-called middle class, did the SdRP look
after when it was in power and who else will it care for if it
should return to power? And at whose cost, if not that of the
workers?

The decision to organise the demonstration was taken by the OPZZ
Presidium on 11th March. According to the weekly newspaper Nowy
Tygodnik Popularny:

The debates at the Presidium were historic in character. For the
first time in six years the OPZZ decided upon such decisive action in
relation to government policy. They adopted numerous demands of a
national, regional and work-place character, reflecting the growing
conflicts, closures and job losses, inappropriate restructuring of
some [?? ed. Dalej!] branches of industry, sharp increase
in the cost of living and growing poverty and simultaneous excessive
enrichment of the elite in the work-place and in the state at national
and regional levels.” The same weekly also reported on the
prevailing mood at the meeting.

we will not allow further oppressive behaviour by the
Government towards working people, towards the unemployed and
pensioners, or put up with the continual disregard shown by the
governing coalition towards the largest trade union organisation.

The time has come to say Stop!—stressed members of the
Presidium.

Would it were so! Experience teaches us that we must take a sceptical
attitude to this declaration by the leadership of the OPZZ. We should
not however look on passively, or take the OPZZ leaders literally and
say ‘stop’ to the Government. We should demand and exert
pressure on them to really do what they say.

Saying ‘stop’ to the Government can only be done in one
way, by a massive mobilisation of the workers, not once, but as part
of a campaign of protest action adopted democratically, after the
widest possible consultation amongst workers and in the trade unions.

The demands which the OPZZ has put forward are very limited. God
forbid that they should in any way disturb the rule of capital.

One recent declaration by the Council of the OPZZ Metal Workers'
Federation. stated that “the basic conflict from the point of
view of the trade unions lies between capital and labour.”
Anyone who thought however that the Council was beginning to speak the
language of class struggle would be mistaken.

Indeed, if we read on, we learn that it expects that the OPZZ Congress
should “define in the form of a resolution the interests of
working people, taking into account the interests of capital.”

Of course, capitalists do not respect even the most elementary
interests of working people, unless they are forced to do so though an
arduous struggle. Nevertheless, the union thinks that the definition
of the interests of working people should respect the interests of the
capitalists! The result of their interests being taken into account is
invariably the same: the interests of working people lose out and
those of capital benefit.

In the columns of Nowy Tygodnik Popularny someone who
expresses the prevailing views of the OPZZ leadership writes that,
although this year's neo-liberal budget cannot be defeated,
“trade union pressure can cause a diminution of the pain for the
worst off.” And that, in general, “it is the trade unions
who have the capacity to oppose neo-liberal tendencies
effectively.”

So far so good. But the split personality of the OPZZ leadership is
illustrated by the rest of the article in Nowy Tygodnik
Popularny:

We are not talking here about the welfare state, but about a minimum
social justice, about exerting some restraint on the excessive
enrichment of the few at the expense of the majority.

The past four years have shown that it is possible to reconcile
economic growth with improvement of the social situation, that the
left is—what a paradox!—building capitalism, without
interfering for an instant in the transformation of the system. This
is logical, since in order to meet social needs more adequately it is
necessary to strengthen the market economy, to the extent that it
favours economic growth.

If union activists are so eager to show that they do not dissent from
the dominant ideological trend, that they abandon advocacy of the
welfare state and restrict their goals to “minimum social
justice,” if they do not demand that the few stop enriching
themselves at the expense of the majority, but only that limits are
put upon excessive enrichment and shamelessly assert that the
strengthening of the market economy makes it easier to meet social
needs, then there can be only one outcome: time and again the defence
of the workers' needs will be abandoned.

When trade union militants are so ambivalent, then it is always
advantageous to the capitalists and not to working
people”exactly as in ‘defining the interests of working
people, taking into account the interests of capital.’ And when
it is asserted that Poland's adherence to the European Union
supposedly means adherence to a “social Europe,” in
reality it means joining a neo-liberal capitalist Europe.

The OPZZ is today the only mass workers' organisation which can
defend the workforce and what remains of publicly owned property from
exploitation and waste by neo-liberal capitalism. The April 3rd
demonstration showed that, contrary to all those who had written off
trade unionism as a lost cause, the OPZZ was capable of mobilising the
working masses. Whether and to what extent this capacity is used and
translated into deeds cannot be left to the narrow circles of the OPZZ
leadership. It is a matter for all those who are under threat of
finding themselves on the street, reduced to beggary, if no
organisation comes forward to defend their rights, dignity and
interests. If the OPZZ adopts such a course, then sooner or later it
will win over workers who belong to Solidarity, who are losing out,
like all other workers and have nothing to gain from the policies of
AWS (Solidarity Electoral Action) or the Freedom Union.

OPZZ's systemic demands

These “systemic demands” presented by the OPZZ Presidium,
form the basis of their national dispute with the government.

The opening of negotiations between the employers and the trade
unions, with the participation of the government, on a pact regarding
social reforms, to include self management, health insurance, social
insurance and education.

Consultation to take place with the social partners in the forum of
the Trilateral Commission on restructuring and privatisation, together
with the introduction of binding sectorial and industrial agreements
on social benefits.

Presentation of a three year programme to increase public sector wages
in relation to the private sector.

The introduction of a permanent mechanism evaluating the impact of
government initiatives and legislation on the labour market.

The introduction of a system of workers' participation in
companies belonging to the National Investment Fund, on the basis of
the principles enshrined in the law on the commercialisation and
privatisation of state enterprises. Access to shares in companies
owned by the National Investment Fund should also be available to
former employees, on the same basis.

The introduction of ceilings on the earnings of managers and members
of supervisory boards of companies owned by the Treasury and the
management of state enterprises through use of a multiple of wages
paid in the enterprise and on financial results.

Preparation of a list of enterprises whose assets will be designated
to finance social security reforms.

Execution of “Priorities for the achievement of a programme for
promoting productive employment and the reduction of unemployment in
the period 1997–2000” in the form adopted by the
Government in June 1997.

Changes in the regulations implementing legislation on the
participation of foreigners in economic and social life*

Implementation of existing legislation:

on social assistance (in part relating to increasing the employment of
social workers).

on work-place social benefit funds (the issue of regulations in part
relating to additional deductions in some administrative areas [gminy]
in the Katowice and Walbrzych Voivodships)

on the professional and social rehabilitation and employment of
disabled persons (in the area of establishing national and voivod
level teams responsible for the registration of invalids).

in the area relating to the production of goods containing asbestos
(partly regarding budgetary support for the restructuring process).

Restoration of 100% indexation for all pensions before the social
reforms enter into force.

The opening of negotiations with the social partners over the
institution of a minimum guaranteed income.

The introduction of social protection in connection with energy price
increases through reductions in domestic prices for electricity and
gas.

An end to violations of trade union rights, amongst others in the area
relating to consultation regarding legislation affecting employment.

An end to deliberate obstruction by the Government in the area of
negotiation of collective agreements by teachers, health workers and
social workers.

Speeding up of the work of the Procurator regarding the unlawful
eviction of five trade union federations from occupation of their
premises on Zloty St. in Warsaw.

* In its resolution opening a national dispute with the Government,
the OPZZ Presidium states that the implementing regulations for the
law concerning foreigners have caused a reduction in turn-over and
therefore also employment in markets and that there is also evidence
of a slump—also as a result of the regulations—of
production in many small, medium sized and even large enterprises in
the textiles industry, clothing, leather, furniture and building
materials.

Reprinted from >Dalej!, the Warsaw
based journal of the Revolutionary Left Tendency, which supports the
Fourth International. >Dalej! can be
contacted at: PO Box 76, 03-912 Warsaw 33 or on e-mail:
dalej_nlr@hotmail.com.pl>. Translated by David Holland. First
published in English in Labour Focus on Eastern Europe.

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